A senior Metropolitan Police officer has said that the weapons used in stabbings have got bigger, the injuries worse, and the attacks more “feral” in the past five years as London’s violent crime spree continues.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt told the London Knife Crime Summit on Wednesday that police officers were having to administer “trauma medicine” to stabbing victims who are increasingly being attacked with machetes and hunting knives.

“The violence is getting greater. If I was stood here five years ago, I would probably be talking about knife offences where there was generally a single puncture wound.